11-04-2025
This Garmin fitness tracker is just as good (if not better) than an Apple Watch — and it's on sale right now
The Apple Watch is a fantastic smartwatch and fitness tracker — it's one that I wear almost daily, and use to test against other wearables. But it's a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. If you are looking for something similar, but with more of a focus on fitness and health tracking, the Garmin Vivoactive is one of the best Apple Watch alternatives.
Garmin Vivoactive 5 deal
Garmin Vivoactive 5
The Vivoactive 5 has many of Garmin's signature fitness and health tracking features, but is slimmer and sleeker than models like the Garmin Venu 3 and Garmin Forerunner 165. It still has plenty of my favorite Garmin features: daily summaries, sleep coaching, Garmin coach training, workout benefit summaries, workout recovery times, muscle maps for strength workouts and over 30 supported exercise modes.
It's not all fitness — the Vivoactive tracks your basic health metrics, sleep, naps and notifications, and can be used for tap-to-pay. Plus, it has wellness features like meditation modes and guided breathing exercises.
It's also important to note that it gets up to 11 days of battery life. That's long enough that I almost forget I need to charge at all — a far cry from the daily charging of my Apple Watch.
The Vivoactive 5 works with iPhone and Android devices and comes in four colors — the black and ivory colors have the steepest discount right now.
Why trust NBC Select?
I'm a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on smartwatches, running shoes, cameras and more. For this piece, I checked Garmin Vivoactive 5 prices across multiple retailers to find the best deal.
